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The New York Knicks took a commanding 2-0 series lead over the Indiana Pacers in the NBA’s Eastern Conference semifinals on Wednesday, May 8, and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle believes they’ve had some help from the officials in doing so.
Speaking to the media after the Pacers’ 130-121 loss to the Knicks, Carlisle railed against the refs as he suggested that the Knicks were getting favorable calls because they’re, unlike the Pacers, a big-market team.
“One guy just said he didn’t double-dribble. But it looked to me like, you know, Thibs went out and argued it and they changed it. That’s what it looked like. I can only go by what I see, what I saw, and, you know, that’s small beans compared to everything else. Small-market teams deserve an equal shot. They deserve a fair shot no matter where they’re playing,” Carlisle said.
Carlisle explained that while he had issues with the officiating in Game 1, he did not file complaints with the league in the hopes of getting better calls in Game 2.
Now that he believes that hasn’t happened, the Pacers have filed 78 plays to the league that they believe were incorrectly called, according to ESPN‘s Brian Windhorst.
“We always go through the film in games where it felt like the whistles weren’t balanced, and we pull the clips, and there’s a way you can submit them to the NBA office,” the former title-winning Dallas Mavericks coach said.
“In the playoffs when you submit things, the other team sees what you submit. And so, there were 29 plays in Game 1 that we thought were clearly called the wrong way. I decided not to submit them because I just felt like, you know, we’d get a more balanced whistle tonight. It didn’t feel that way.”
Carlisle certainly has a legitimate reason to be frustrated with the officiating, particularly at the end of Game 1 as the refs called an offensive foul on Myles Turner for a moving screen that virtually decided the game.
The Pacers and Knicks will now have Thursday off before resuming the series with Game 3 in Indiana on Friday night.